City of Christchurch by-election, 1896
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The City of Christchurch by-election of 1896 was a by-election held on 13 February 1896 during the 12th New Zealand Parliament in the urban seat of the City of Christchurch. The by-election was triggered by the appointment of William Pember Reeves as Agent-General to the United Kingdom. The Liberal Government led by Richard Seddon had trouble finding a suitable candidate and delayed Reeves' resignation until the day he left his home in Christchurch to take up the London post. Nonetheless, rumours of Reeves' pending resignation had been circulating for a month and candidates were lining up. The Liberal Party candidate who was secured resigned within a week of Reeves' eventual resignation, and a new candidate had to be found. Three candidates contested the election: Richard Molesworth Taylor was the official Liberal Party candidate, Tommy Taylor was a prohibitionist also with liberal views but an ardent opponent of Seddon, and Charles Lewis was the reluctant conservative candidate of the opposition. Being a Liberal Party stronghold, vote splitting between those candidates who held liberal views secured the election win for Lewis, with the Liberal Party candidate coming last.
William Pember Reeves was a lawyer and prominent journalist in Christchurch. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in the 1887 election for the St Albans electorate, and transferred to the City of Christchurch electorate when it was recreated for the 1890 election. Reeves was a cabinet minister in the Liberal Government, but had an uneasy relationship with the premier, Richard Seddon, and was blocked by Seddon from implementing labour reforms. Reeves was offered the position of Agent-General, which he accepted; this was an influential position and when the post became that of a high commissioner ten years later, the salary exceeded that of the prime minister. But nonetheless, Seddon was determined to remove Reeves from his cabinet, and this was a convenient way of achieving this. Rumours about Reeves' pending change of career started to circulate in early December 1895, but the official announcement was left until 6 January 1896, with Reeves leaving Lyttelton for Wellington later that evening, and from Wellington for London only four days later. The Governor, The Earl of Glasgow, received Reeves' resignation from the Christchurch electorate when he reached Lyttelton on 13 January.
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